


Blue Bird

by ChocolateCannibal



Series: Naruto: The Last Airbender [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Angst, Dark!Naruto, M/M, Meh, Oblivious Sasuke, Pining, Some Humor, not a standalone, pls read previous work, slightly ooc?, soulmate shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 10:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11205780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateCannibal/pseuds/ChocolateCannibal
Summary: Sasuke only had eyes for that blue, blue sky.





	Blue Bird

**Author's Note:**

> That awkward moment when your AU has an AU, which has its own AU. (Pls, pls read Naruto: The Last Airbender before proceeding!)
> 
> Based on the shippuden op, Blue Bird, and that one quote about Naruto and Sasuke's roles being reversed. 
> 
> This work is dedicated to my good friend, Alcohol.

They lay side by side as they watched the clouds drift by.

“What’s it like?” Sasuke asked out of the blue.

“Hm?”

“Flying.”

“You’d know if you ever stopped being a scaredy-cat and gave Kurama a chance.”

“Hn.”

“Why’re you asking?”

“Answer my question first.”

“Alright, alright,” cheeky little bastard, “Lemme think. It’s like, like, falling but in reverse and really... Good. Yeah. You feel warm and giddy. You’re on top of the world because you’re literally above everything, and best of all free-“

“-free,” Sasuke said at the same time, startling Naruto into silence, “of course.”

Naruto rolled onto his side to face Sasuke and propped his head on his hand. Like his earth-bending sensei taught him, he watched… And waited.

Sasuke spoke.

“I don’t think I ever wanted to bring you to Madara.” Pause. Deep breath followed by a slow, shuddering exhale. His eyes were closed. “I don’t want to kill my- I don’t,” the prince took a deep breath, “want to ru- carry these burdens.”

Naruto’s eyes widened. “Sasuke…”

“I must do my part to end this war and fulfil my duties. I know this. I know… But it would be nice. It must be nice.”

“What,” Naruto rolled onto his back, “flying? It’s a little more than just _nice_ , Sasuke.”

“I meant being free,” Sasuke whispered.

“You think I’m free?” the airbender clenched his fingers, “You think this Avatar thing is easy? You think I asked for any of this? That I can just walk away from it? You _asshole_ , even after-” It was hard to speak when his throat threatened to close up. Naruto swallowed and tried again. “-after I told you what happened when I tried to- to run, you still don’t get it.”

“You can fly. Like that bird,” he gestured to a speck of indigo high in the sky, “or your nine-tailed dog.“

Asshole!

“Now you’re just doing it on purpose,“ Naruto grumbled.

“Nothing is stopping you from leaving all this behind.”

_You’re wrong._

His chest hurt. Why did that jerk always say such depressing things? Naruto closed his eyes, keeping silent as he willed away the sting of tears.

Vague shapes swirled, shifted, and solidified behind his eyelids. He saw visions of a backwards reality where Sasuke was the Avatar, and Naruto the banished prince. That version of Naruto chased Sasuke to the ends of the earth, captured him, put him in a cage.

_Mine, you’re mine, and I’m never letting you go._

If Sasuke could fly he would accept one of two outcomes: absolute freedom, or death at the hands of those who kept him from it. Imprisonment was too abhorrent to consider, much less experience. Sasuke, proud, stubborn, determined Sasuke, found himself crying, screaming, and begging to be released.

_“Let me go. Please, please let me out. I can’t- I can’t take this anymore.”_

Still, _that_ Naruto kept him.

 _This world is going to burn. Let it. I don’t care as long as I have you._ He didn’t speak these thoughts out loud. He knew he was wrong. He shouldn’t have done this, but it was the only way.

 _“I’m sorry,”_ Naruto whispered. _“I’m so sorry,”_ he repeated the lie.

The ice in Sasuke’s pure, black eyes thawed. His sooty lashes cast long shadows down his cheeks as he looked away. _“Someone’s making you do this.”_

Gotcha.

Naruto said nothing. _Gullible,_ he decided as he locked the prison door, _too trusting. The world would eat you alive. This is for you as much as it’s for me._

The prison cell had no windows. Sasuke couldn’t see the sun, the sky, or the stars. The color blue became a distant memory. He could only glimpse it in the eyes of his ‘reluctant’ captor.

 _“Stay,”_ he found himself saying one day, “ _if you can’t let me leave, stay a little longer.”_

Naruto was more than happy to oblige, and he was patient. A few hours every day was all it took. Weeks stretched to months, which became years. He was subtle but persistent: an accidental brush of fingers here, a warm, lingering gaze there. He played the role of the innocent, oblivious idiot flawlessly.  

Eventually, as he always did, Sasuke gave in. That first sweet, fleeting press of lips was followed by a litany of innocent apologies. _“Naruto, I- I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t-”_

 _“It’s okay,”_ Naruto smiled _, “Sasuke…”_ He leaned forward. The soft slide of skin on skin, the ghosting tickle of hair, the slow burn of sweet, singing pain, _“I’ve wanted…”_

_You, you, always you, only you, even when I didn’t know who or what I was looking for. What took you so long, bastard? Why do you always keep me waiting?_

Naruto- this Naruto- opened his eyes with a soft gasp.

What. The. _Fuck?_

Their roles could have been reversed. He didn’t know how or when or why, just that it was possible, and possibly happening at this very moment, in that untouchable alternate universe. In that world, they’d never lay side by side on a grassy hill, watching the fluffy white clouds drift by in the clear summer sky.

_Do you know how long I’ve searched for you?_

But he wouldn’t look twice at Naruto. With his wings and the wind beneath them…

Sasuke only had eyes for that blue, blue sky.

Naruto’s heart stuttered painfully _. I wouldn’t have been enough. That’s why he- I-_

His stomach churned with unease. _That_ twisted, dark not-Naruto did something horrible. Unforgivable. Sick. But this Naruto could understand why. In fact, he understood a little too well. Under similar circumstances, he wondered if he would…

Naruto glanced at Sasuke a little guiltily, struck with the sudden urge to apologize.

“What're you looking at, loser?”

Nope. Not gonna go there. Let’s leave that can of worms tightly shut. Put it back on the shelf. Nice and easy. Good, now let those worms suffocate and die. What are they doing in a can, anyway? Stupid bugs. Wait, are worms technically bugs or like… Tiny, eyeless snakes?

Naruto decided to ask. No such thing as a stupid question, right?

Sasuke rolled his eyes with a scoff. “Usuratonkachi.”

He forced a laugh. “Jerk.” Yeah, he should’ve just kept his mouth shut but he didn’t, because he was- and that’s why…

_I’m not enough. I’ll never be enough for him._

Naruto thought this, ignorant of the fact that his eyes were the same shade and color as the freedom Sasuke longed for. He thought this, not realizing that he held the key to the prince’s suffocating, self-constructed cage. The Avatar can see and know things that most people could scarcely fathom.

But, at that time, Naruto had no way of knowing that regardless of circumstance, their two souls would always find and fall for each other.

Just then, the best he could do was wait, listen…

And hope.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know. I'm working on the main story even though the plot keeps changing on me and Sasuke's being a stubborn little shit. Might add other snippets of the dark timeline AU (*cough* dark!Naruto is HOT af) or just leave it alone.


End file.
